Absentee are built around the baritone of frontman Dan Michaelson, a gravelly voice that recalls Leonard Cohen and the Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt. If only Michaelson's lyrics could match theirs for social insight, devastating romanticism or sharp wit. Nonetheless, this second album gleams with promise. There's a heartfelt warmth to The Nurses Didn't Notice a Thing, in which a man in a maternity ward wants to applaud as his wife's waters break but fears it would be "inappropriate". And in Bitchstealer, Michaelson makes light work of the line "there's always somebody who makes you wish you hadn't settled down so soon", making it twice as cutting. That song, along with Pips and Boy, Did She Teach You Nothing? epitomise the band's knack for colliding Michaelson's lugubriousness with buoyant pop tunes, all coruscating guitar riffs and sing-along choruses.